1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to the field of firmware update and, more particularly, to field firmware update for display devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Firmware in general refers to a set of machine executable instructions stored in a device and used to control the basic operations of the device. Many of today's electronic devices and appliances—ranging from monitors, television sets, digital cameras and storage devices to washers—contain firmware. Firmware may be stored in read-only memory (ROM) in a device or, if some cases, stored in writable memory such as flash memory to allow for updates. Common reasons for updating firmware include fixing bugs or adding features to the device.
To update the firmware for a device, the device may need to be recalled and returned to a manufacturer for the update to be performed at the manufacturer's site. If the device is configured with a debug port, the manufacturer can use a proprietary hardware connector to transfer new firmware into the device through the debug port to update the existing firmware stored in the device. If the device does not have a debug port, an “open chassis” update may be required to access the internal memory in the device in order to update the existing firmware stored in the memory. In some cases, the storage medium where the firmware is stored in the device, such as a socketed ROM, must be replaced in order to update the firmware.
Often time there is not a debug port on a display devices such as a monitor, television set or the like that can be used for firmware update. The display device may be equipped with video/audio input ports, such as a video graphics array (VGA) port and/or a digital visual interface (DVI) port. At present time it is the display data channel (DDC) pin in the VGA or DVI port that is used to transfer new firmware into the display device for firmware update. As data transfer over the DDC pin is based on the Inter-integrated Circuit (I2C) protocol, the clock rate of which is usually less than 100 KHz, the time it takes to transfer a firmware file into the display device over the DDC pin is likely to be very long. Under such circumstances, a field firmware update by an end user may be a challenging, inconvenient or even unfeasible task. As a result, the end user is likely to suffer from the long wait time as the new firmware is slowly transferred into the display device via the DDC pin of the signal input port, or be required to send the device back to the manufacturer where the firmware update can be performed by, for example, one of the methods described above. This is not only inconvenient but also expensive to the end user.